What were the top 5 weather events in Minnesota for 2024?Please vote for the top five for 2024 by emailing Pete Boulay with your events ranked from 1-5 from this year's list of candidates below, with #1 being the most important. Please refer to the event by the letter preceding it in the list. You don't need to vote for five entries; if you list just one, we assume it is your #1. The deadline is 12 PM Monday, December 30. This page will be replaced by the results that afternoon. Below are the candidate weather events for Minnesota in 2024 (in rough chronological order.)A. Extreme warmth January 31, which became one of the warmest January days on record in Minnesota and THE warmest January day on record in International Falls.B. Warm and record-cloudy January. We did have a cold-spell in mid-January, but it was windy and cloudy and lacked the typical January sunshine. It was sandwiched between mild weather to start the month, and record-warmth to end it. It was not a sunny affair, with record-low January solar radiation measured at the University of Minnesota.C. Record-shattering January Thaw that lasted 24 days at the Twin Cities (and into mid-February)!D. February 26-27, 2024. Not to be outdone by January 31, this event produced the highest February temperatures on record at over 30 Minnesota climate stations, with many recording the earliest 70° F reading on record too. Park lights came on, and fields swarmed with early soccer and baseball practices, as Minnesotans reveled in the toasty late-winter air.E. Yet another heat wave, peaking March 3rd, was slightly warmer and more widespread than the one just a week earlier, and brought more record temperatures to Minnesota, with many more stations recording their earliest 70° F on record. This one got wildfire started in the south too!F. "Lost Winter’s Revenge" storm. After a warm winter that was largely devoid of significant snowfall and that the Minnesota Climate Office deemed “Lost”, a large, powerful winter storm lashed Minnesota with heavy snow, slush, rain, a few thunderstorms, and strong winds from late Saturday March 23rd into Wednesday March 27th, 2024. With its large footprint and variety of weather, this major storm would have been a headline and contender in most years. Aside from producing 1-2 feet of snow, it also produced heavy rains of over one inch—including in areas that received a foot of snow or more!G. Exceptionally wet period from June 15-22. The late-March winter storm initiated a much wetter period in Minnesota, leading to above-average precipitation in April, and May, but it was an extraordinary period in mid-June that produced significant flash floods in northeastern, and then southwestern through south-central Minnesota, kicking off an period of record to near-record stream and river flooding along the Minnesota and Mississippi river systems.H. Massively wet June 2024. June finished as the fourth wettest on record statewide, but some long-term stations had their wettest month of all-time and Faribault even cracked Minnesota’s top-ten list of wettest station-months on record.I. Enormous Hail, July 31. It was not a particularly busy severe thunderstorm season in Minnesota, but one event made a run for the record books, when storms out in western Minnesota produced some of the largest hailstones on record for the state. It’s impossible to know exactly where this one ranks, but the hail reported in this event is the largest stone for which we have evidence submitted with the report.J. Humid Heat-Fueled Severe Weather Double-Header. The most intensely humid day of the year ignited another rather energetic severe thunderstorm event, with two rounds of damaging storms within about 12 hours of one-another, leading to widespread power outages and even some damage at the Minnesota State Fair and elsewhere.K. Record-Warm September. It wasn't the hottest September weather on record, but a warm spell that dominated the middle third of September 2024 was noteworthy for its depth, persistence, and uniformity across Minnesota. A second, only slightly lesser warm spell followed it just two days later and lasted through the final day of the month, and September finished as the warmest on record by far across the state.L. Extreme Autumn Warmth and Dryness. The warmth of September came with an almost total lack of precipitation lasting through much of October. A period of exceptional dryness and warmth blanketed Minnesota for over 50 days, from the first day of September into the fourth week of October 2024. The warm and dry conditions caused a rapid and widespread expansion of drought in the state, with some areas dropping three categories on the US Drought Monitor in just 8 weeks--going from no drought to having "severe" drought.M. The Dueling Dry Spells of 2024. The dryness and drought of early autumn included one long period without any measurable precipitation. In the Twin Cities, where precipitation records go back to 1871, the 34-days without measurable precipitation is tied for the second-longest such dry spell on record. Perhaps most amazingly, the dry spell it ties for #2 had occurred from February into March, earlier this year! Two high-ranking dry spells in the same year is a rare, and no other years are featured twice in the top-ten.N. Record Warmth Oct 29. What’s another heat wave in a year marked with warm weather extremes? This late autumn heat produced some impressive evening warmth, along with some of the highest temperatures to have occurred so late in the season at some stations. We usually put out 80-degree temperatures to rest during early October, but this surge produced over a dozen 80-degree readings. Perhaps most impressive is what followed two days later. See next!O. Another Halloween Snowfall. This was no legendary storm, but just two days after record heat in southern and central Minnesota, many of the same areas were treated to falling temperatures, rain, slush, and sticky snow. Despite limited accumulations the snow managed to damage some trees and fences in parts of the Twin Cities, and limited trick-or-treat visitors across many areas.For reference, here is last year's top 5!
